MILAN (AIMnews.it) - The Board of Directors of Monnalisa met today and approved the consolidated and separate financial statements at December 31, 2019.

Christian Simoni, Chief Executive Officer of Monnalisa, stated: “Our Group in 2019 continued its major international expansion, through the development of the retail channel and more generally of the direct consumer channel -with growth of 26%, despite the significant slowdown of sales in Hong Kong, consolidating the Monnalisa brand identity across the world -as confirmed by the 67% of turnover from overseas. Store openings and closings not only targeted expansion, but also greater channel profitability, which continues to be impacted by the number of stores in the initial start-up or start-up phase, while with a medium-term outlook for results. An unpredicted heightening of the difficulties on the childrenswear wholesale market in the second half of the year, particularly in Europe, unfortunately more than offset the retail channel growth and was the main factor impacting margins in theyear. The initial months of 2020 began very well, with solid growth both for comparable direct mono-brand stores -also in China until the initial weeks of January -and on the wholesale channel. The Covid-19 emergency thereafter stalled this development. In this regard, I currently consider it too early to make an exact estimate of the potential impact on our business, particularly in view of the uncertainty on the timing and the methods for reopening, in addition to the potential for the movement of people in all countries in which we operate. We are however preparing to deal with the various possible scenarios by undertaking numerous digitally-focused initiatives, including the launch of a virtual showroom and the boosting of the online sales platform. However, with great satisfaction I report that the Monnalisa brand in the initial months of 2020 was highly appreciated among the online specialised childrenswear platforms. We have continued the design of the new collections, which will again focus on creativity and fashion, alongside the creation of fashion "masks" that have already been very successful on the social channels. Despite having launched all of these initiatives, the Board of Directors of Monnalisa, with a great sense of responsibility and on the basis of prudency, has decided to incorporate a negative outlook for 2020 to the policies for drafting the 2019 financial statements. We have also postponed all investments which are not strictly necessary or which are not already in progress, and have undertaken a series of initiatives to improve our capacity for resilience, although we expecta gradual recovery in the second half of the year. We are striving to be ready for a safe start for our partners and employees, who, in compliance with the workplace safety regulations, have continued to operate, allowing us to continue deliveries of online sales and, where possible, the production of items for the autumn-winter 2020 season and the samples for the spring-summer 2021 season. Based on the principle of solidarity and consistent with our sense of corporate social responsibility, we have donated to many local institutions a significant number of masks that we have directly produced, including in a format designed specifically for children.”